baseballfandomcom-20200222-history
May 13
1800s 1900s 1910s *1911: **Ty Cobb of the Detroit Tigers hit his first grand slam. After six innings, Detroit led the Boston Red Sox, 10–1. Boston came back to win the game 13–11 in 10 innings. **The New York Giants scored a major league record 10 runs before the St. Louis Cardinals retired the first batter in the first inning. Fred Merkle drove in six of the Giants 13 runs in the first en route to a 19–5 victory. When Giants manager John McGraw decided to save starting pitcher Christy Mathewson for another day, Rube Marquard entered the game in the second inning and set a record for relievers with 14 strikeouts in his eight-inning appearance. 1920s *1923 - Joe Sewell of the Cleveland Indians struck out twice in one game for the first time in his career. Washington Senators rookie Wally Warmoth was the pitcher. In a 14-year career, Sewell had only one other multiple strikeout game. *1929 - At Cleveland's League Park, the Indians defeated the Yankees, 4–3, in the first game in major league history in which players from both teams wear numbers on the back of their jerseys. 1930s 1940s *1942 - Jim Tobin of the Boston Braves almost single-handedly beat the Chicago Cubs at Braves Field, 6–5, by pitching a five-hitter and hitting three consecutive home runs. Tobin, who hit a pinch-homer the day before, became the only pitcher in modern history to collect three home runs in a game. His fourth at-bat was a fly ball caught against the fence in left field. 1950s *1952 - In an Appalachian League game, Ron Necciai of the Bristol Twins struck out 27 batters while pitching a 7–0 no-hitter against the Welch Miners. Four of the Welch hitters did reach base on a walk, an error, a hit by pitch and a passed ball charged to Twins' catcher Harry Dunlop on a swinging third strike. But 27 outs were recorded that night via strikeout. Actually, there were four in the ninth inning, by Dunlop's miscue, and one batter was retired on a grounder in the second inning. *1955 - At Yankee Stadium, Mickey Mantle hit home runs from both sides of the plate for the first time in his major league career. The New York Yankees slugger finished the game with three home runs – two left-handed and one right-handed – and drove in all of his team’s runs in a 5–2 victory over the Detroit Tigers. Whitey Ford is the winning pitcher and Steve Gromek the loser. *1958: **Teammates Willie Mays and Darryl Spencer each had four long hits as San Francisco beat the Dodgers in Los Angeles 16–9. Mays hit two home runs, two triples, a single and four RBI, and Spencer had two home runs, a triple, a double and six RBI for a combined 28 total bases. **Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals collected his 3,000th career hit with a pinch-double off Chicago Cubs pitcher Moe Drabowsky at Wrigley Field. The Cardinals won 5–3. 1960s *1965 - California Angels pitcher Dick Wantz died following surgery for brain cancer. The 25-year-old Wantz had made his debut only one month earlier, pitching one inning in relief in his only major league appearance. *1969 - Ernie Banks of the Chicago Cubs reached the 1,500 runs batted in milestone with seven RBI in a 19–0 shellacking of the expansion San Diego Padres. Hard-throwing right-hander Dick Selma earned the win as the Cubs tied a modern day record for the most one-sided shutout in National League history. 1970s *1976 - For the sixth consecutive game, George Brett of the Kansas City Royals collected at least three hits. 1980s *1980 - Ray Knight of the Cincinnati Reds hit two home runs in the fifth inning – including a grand slam – to lead the Reds to a 15–4 rout of the New York Mets. *1982 - The Chicago Cubs won game No. 8,000 in their history with a 5–0 victory over Houston at the Astrodome. *1989 - Kirby Puckett of the Minnesota Twins tied a major league record with four double against the Toronto Blue Jays. He became the 35th player to hit four doubles in a game, the first since Toronto's Dámaso García in 1986. 1990s *1993 - George Brett of the Kansas City Royals hit his 300th career home run in the sixth inning of a 7–3 victory over the Cleveland Indians. Brett joined Hank Aaron, Al Kaline, Willie Mays, Stan Musial and Carl Yastrzemski as the only major league players with at least 3,000 hits and 300 home runs. *1994 - Tim Salmon of the California Angels tied an American League record with his 13th consecutive hit. *1998 - The Atlanta Braves set an National League record and tied a major league mark by hitting home runs in 25 straight games, doing it when Ryan Klesko hit a two-run shot in the sixth inning against St. Louis. 2000s *2000 - Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Todd Stottlemyre earned his seventh victory of the season as the Diamondbacks beat the San Diego Padres 6–2. It was also Stottlemyre's 136th career win. He and father Mel Stottlemyre became the first father-son combination to record 300 wins. *2001 - Alex Rodriguez became the fifth-youngest (25 years, 289 days) big leaguer to hit his 200th career home run. Mel Ott accomplished the feat in 1934 at the youngest age (25 years, 144 days) followed by Eddie Mathews (25 years, 243 days), Jimmie Foxx (25 years, 267 days) and Mickey Mantle (25 years, 280 days). *2002 - Thirty-eight home runs shy of the exclusive 500 home run club, José Canseco retired at 37 age due to injuries sustained in recent years. The former American League MVP, who was cut by the Expos during spring training, had his best years in Oakland, forming along Mark McGwire one of the most feared one-two punch of the late 80s and early 90s. Births *1883 - Jimmy Archer, catcher (d. 1958) *1886 - Larry Gardner, infielder (d. 1976) *1910 - Boze Berger, infielder (d. 1992) *1917 - Lou Stringer, infielder *1927 - Dusty Rhodes, outfielder *1933 - Johnny Roseboro, All-Star catcher (d. 2002) *1934 - Leon Wagner, All-Star outfielder (d. 2004) *1935 - Bill Dailey, pitcher *1950 - Juan Beníquez, outfielder *1950 - Bobby Valentine, manager *1965 - José Rijo, All-Star pitcher *1969 - Lyle Mouton, outfielder *1971 - Mike Sirotka, pitcher *1975 - Mickey Callaway, pitcher *1975 - Jack Cressend, pitcher *1977 - Robby Hammock, catcher *1977 - Chris Oxspring, pitcher *1978 - Ryan Bukvich, pitcher *1978 - Barry Zito, All-Star pitcher Deaths *1929 - George Stallings, manager (b. 1867) *1943 - Pat Malone, pitcher (b. 1902) *1943 - Jack Hendricks, manager (b. 1875) *1965 - Dick Wantz, pitcher (b. 1940) *1991 - Hal Gregg, All-Star pitcher (b. 1921)